Training's fust in August.

[El Gordo]

...

That meeting with the near-60 year old is highly encouraging though. When I look up marathon results, I always peer at the age categories just to remind myself that it's perfectly possible to run a 3:30 or even 3 hour marathon in your 50s and 60s. So many people manage it that it can't be just for the miraculous few.

Interesting you should say that. I imagine (I hope) that those super-fast age-category times are set by runners who have been running much longer than us Johnny-come-latelys and who set good times in their youth as well. Or maybe that's just hopeful thinking on my part.

Whatever, I'll just keep plugging away looking for a 'good run' and let the times look after themselves. That's the ticket, eh?

Hard to say. You get the impression that a lot of the guys who were running fast times in their younger days and have spent all their lives pounding the roads manage to cripple themselves by the time they get to their 50s and 60s -- often long before that. I imagine people who have done other sports or been generally physically fit all their lives and take up running later on might stand a better chance of posting a 3 or 3:30 marathon in their, er, peak years.

Kinda academic in any case as it will never happen to me, though I do sometimes wonder if it's possible for ordinary people to run that sort of time at that age IF they had enough free time and whatever resources and equipment needed. Plus of course, the most valuable resource of the lot -- unflagging motivation. I feel it must be possible for many.